Science:
- Plant growth, plant parts, plant life cycles, etc.
- Insects and animals found in and around the garden, identifying them and sometimes learning how to deter them from ruining your garden, preferably without the use of chemicals.
- Cause and effect: learning how the weather effects plant growth, seeing what happens if you forget to water your garden or neglect to weed it.
- To work hard. They are rewarded for their hard work when they get to eat the fruit of their labours.
- Patience. Seeds don't sprout over night and learning to wait until the food is ripe is a great way to learn patience.
- Persistence. Children have to learn to be persistent when it comes to keeping ahead of the weeds and keeping the animals out of the garden if they want to eat their garden.
- Consistency. You can't forget to water or weed the garden or your plants won't live.
- To save money. Growing your own food is cheaper than buying it.
- Respect. Once children know how hard it is to grow and make their own food, they will have more respect for the farmers who grow the food they get in the grocery store and their parents who cook for them and feed them all the time.
Math:
- Measuring and comparing sizes, for example, who picked the biggest rhubarb leaf.
- Counting how many plants are growing.
- Learning measurement and fractions when cooking and baking with the produce in the kitchen.
Home Ec:
- Learning to tell when fruits and vegetables are ripe and ready to be picked.
- Learning various ways to harvest the produce as we freeze, dry, can, pickle and eat our produce fresh.
- Learning various ways to cook or use the produce in baking.
- You can teach your children natural ways of combating insect pests so you don't have to worry about eating the pesticides from the grocery store. Or even if you do use pesticide, they can see how the chemicals kill the bugs and hopefully understand the importance of washing their hands and food before eating.
- Food not only tastes better when it is home grown and home made, but it is healthier too. Raw fruits and veggies straight out of the garden have the most nutritional value you will find in any food!
- Working out in the garden gets the children outside in the fresh air and sunshine. A half hour of sunshine on their skin gives them their daily dose of vitamin D. Working in the garden can also be good exercise.
This post is the beginning of a new series. Throughout the summer I will share with you what we are doing in our garden and kitchen. As I publish new posts about our gardening adventures I will link them back here so you will be able to find them all in one place.
More posts from the Home Grown & Home Made series
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